The participant will be located in the Monitoring and Analysis Branch and support activities related to the National Aquatic Resource Survey (NARS) program, with a focus on the National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA; https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/nwca). NWCA is a statistically based survey designed to characterize the ecological condition of wetlands across the conterminous United States every 5 years. It is a component of the NARS program and a key activity in EPA’s efforts to achieve national water-quality goals under the Clean Water Act.

Throughout their appointment, the selected participant will research and learn about EPA’s efforts to monitor and assess wetland and other aquatic resources via large-scale, statistically-based studies such as the NWCA. Most of their focus will be to support scientific research activities related to wetland plant data collected in NWCA and may include:

Research on wetland plant species characteristics and compiling information on species traits (e.g., nativity, coefficients of conservatism)

Qualified candidate should have received a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree in a environmental science, earth science, geosciences, marine sciences, or relevant field, with significant focus on wetland plants and plant communities within five years of the appointment start date.

Preferred skills:
experience identifying plants and proficiency in the use of pertinent floras and taxonomic keys for field projects and /or research
Understanding of plant taxonomy and the use of floras, taxonomic keys and floristic databases
Experience with plant ecological field work, data collection and data analysis